Statesville, NC Breaks Guinness World Record!!

IT’S OFFICIAL!! Statesville, NC, USA has received offical notification from Guinness World Records that we now hold the WORLD RECORD for the Longest Continuous Music Concert at 255 hours!  OUTSTANDING!!   We are all so pumped to have successfully achieved this and sooooo glad it is OVER!  Whew!

A couple of photos from our Press Conference today and I will post more details tomorrow.  I do want to note that we will have commemorative T-shirts and a commemorative hard-bound book available soon.  Both are in the design process now and we will publicize when ready to take orders.

Yes!  STATESVILLE TRULY ROCKS!

 

Statesville Awaiting Decision by Guinness…

We applied for the Fast Track judging package so we are told we will hear the decision from Guinness no later than Tuesday, April 28.  I really, really think we WILL get the nod from Guinness because our volunteer committee went to such great detail to meet all the Guinness requirements.  How cool it will be if we learn that Statesville is the first community in the U.S. to hold the longest non-stop musica concert by multiple artists!  Woo-hoo, how neat will that be!

Even if we don’t get the record for some reason, it was an awesome event for a community this size to successfully pull off…between 750 & 800 performers of all ages…we know we had a fiddler who was 5 years old and we know of at least one octenegarian who performed.

Also, I want to share also that this weekend our community had three very inspiring celebrations:

• Saturday at 2:00 I was invited to speak to about 200 youth who worked on community projects Saturday for Global Youth Service Day.  What a great bunch of kids and LEADERS of tomorrow!
• Saturday at 3:00 I attended our community’s new Boys & Girls Club which will serve mostly at-risk kids in our community.
• Today, Sunday  our communtiy celebrated the Grand Opening of our NEW homeless shelter…and a GRAND celebration it was!

Stay tuned for an announcement in the next few days.  Statesville ROCKS!

Guinness Has Received Our Submission…Now, We Wait!

Goodness, we finally heard from Guinness that all our submission arrived OK in London.  Now we wait to hear if they recognize our event as record-breaking!  It was a lot of work, but we had so many volunteers helping us that it was, indeed, do-able.  We have heard from many of you about what the concert meant to you…we want to learn more, so let us hear!  Thanks to all who performed, attended, sponsored the event for us and helped make it a reality.  We’ll publicize once we hear from Guinness! 

Stay Strong , Statesville, The Best is Yet to Come!

Statesville’s 10 Day Music Marathon runs for 255 Hours

It’s about 1:30 a.m. and I am truly exhausted, but I wanted to post one message before catching some zzzzzs.  Statesville rocks!  We could not have hoped for a more thrilling closing celebration of this achievement…once Guinness checks out all details of our 10-day continuous music concert, our community will be the FIRST community in the USA to achieve this particular World Record!  AWESOME!  More tomorrow.  Please come back and read.  We’ll get photos and video on the site asap!  Now, for some sweet quiet time!!!

Nearing the Record-breaking Day….

All the folks who joined our continuous concert today heard several fantastic school groups.  We enjoyed the North Iredell High School Chorus, Troutman Middle School Band, the Mooresville Intermediate School Bobcat Choir, Brawley Middle School Jazz Band, Lake Norman High School Jazz Band with the Great Funk Master Donnies & the Blastoids, followed up by North Iredell Middle School Concert Band.  They all were wonderful to listen to and each group experienced their first participation in a world-wide music concert!  Wow!  How cool is that?

Check out the performance schedules for Saturday and Sunday, our final two days.  If you haven’t made it out to Signal Hill Mall to give a listen, make sure you come out tomrrow or Sunday…we’ll close out our success story at midnight Sunday.  You can see the daily schedules at www.unitedwayofiredell.org, and click on the music marathon logo.  And, remember, if you can’t get out, tune into http://www.wbtv.com/global/story.asp?s=9997497  for the live webcast throughout the marathon.  THANKS WBTV!!  You’re awesome.

Today’s newscast from WBTV http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10085535&nav=menu1434_4_5  and click on the red camera icon.

Day 8 in Statesville World Record Concert

Day 8 has been an enjoyable day at the 10-Day Music Marathon!  I want to publicly thank one of our music marathon committee members and concert performer…Mac Funderburk…Mac was the Executive Director of our Counseling Center of Iredell for many years so the lives of hundreds of our citizens have benefitted by Mac’s caring nature and counseling skills.  Mac and his wife Evelyn aka “Scoop” joined our marathon committee and became financial sponsors and their giving doesn’t stop there.  Today during the wee hours from 5:00 a.m. until 8:00 a.m., Mac performed singing his heart out for our event!  Y’all 3 hours is a long time!  He did it the night before as well.

Last night we enjoyed the beautiful music by Broad Street United Methodist Church Choir, First Baptist Church Choir and Five ’til Five Brass Quintet.  Statesville’s own Karla Causey was outstanding and Neil Furr entertained us with some of his original folk music.  Neil is the Executive  Director of our Yokefellow Ministries. 

My message to our readers today is this…Statesville & Iredell County, we have 3 days left of this fantastic event.  Come out to Signal Hill Mall and enjoy the music, applaud the musicians donating their time and talent and drop a little in our donation box to be shared with the local 23 UW agencies.  Our community has lots of suffering families, so as we know…

MUSIC FEEDS FAMILIES

 

 

Amazing Talent & Camaraderie Throughout 7 Days

United Way staff and community volunteers may be tired and worn from 24 hours of music over ten days, but everyone agrees the time and effort is well worth it.  Such beautiful music has been enjoyed by all!  Well, let’s get honest here…not ALL of it was beautiful music…some of us who never INTENTIONALLY listen to heavy metal rock have listened to that, those of us who may not intentionally listen to hi-hop, have heard that…BUT, they all have been expressions of true talent and we all need to expose ourselves from time to time to what pleases and excites others.  Statesville and Iredell County have been walking outside our normal “boxes” for 7 days now and new relationships have been built and new joys discovered.

Some times our verifiers have donned earplugs to monitor the music according to Guinness regulations. 

Sunday afternoon we were treated to very special Praise & Worship music by the group Sealed as well as Kindred Spirit’s Christian rock.  They were followed by Carolina Express dance band and the Mitchell Community College Inspirational Choir.

I shared the WBTV.com live streaming video of our event with some other United Ways around the country so they could take a look at what we are doing.  I got a real chuckle out of the direcotr from an area in Ohio emailing me to say she had shared it with her staff and they were amazed at the event.  Then, she said, “Now, can you tell me how to get the staff off the web so we can get back to work?”  Tune in folks at http://www.wbtv.com/global/story.asp?s=9997497

If you haven’t made it out to Signal Hill Mall to take a listen to the music being offerend up, don’t miss out…come on out anytime over the next four days and be a part of this historic event!

THANKS WBTV!!

Photo Gallery

Day Three of Music Feeds Families…Seven to Go!

Oh, my goodness, what outstanding talent we have witnessed at the 10-Day Music Marathon.  Greg and Laci Broom kept the crowd spellbound with the five year old on her fiddle!  How precious!  Just imagine when she grows up!  Capt. Conrad Sells is an amazing performer and one all crowds enjoy.  I arrived for my shift as floor manager just in time to hear him sing “We Shall Behold Him.”  So beautifully moving.

Mitchell Community College students were next at the mike and many of us felt as if we were listening to folks on Broadway…awesome young talent, students at MCC under the experienced and talented Jane and Dan Pardue.  We want to hear more!

The Statesville Middle School Bulldog Band, Micki Makuta from Concord, the Good Time Band, Ron Brendle and Troy Conn out of Charlotte provided wonderful entertainment. 

Folks, come on out to Signal Hill Mall anytime over the next 7 days and enjoy some fantastic entertainment…day or night, we’re there!  Remember to check us out also on WBTV.com at http://www.wbtv.com/global/story.asp?s=9997497

THANK YOU WBTV FOR SPREADING THIS JOYFUL EXPERIENCE AROUND THE GLOBE!

Day Two of the Guinness World Record Concert

Well, we are off and running!  We had the South Iredell High School Marine Jr. ROTC unit to present colors and Tenille Kilby-Cates and the national anthum.  Awesome, awesome, awesome!!  Our co-owner of the Signal Hill Mall and Superior Court Judge Robert Collier open the even with a few words of support and thanks to everyone involved.  Statesville High School’s Blue and Gray singers were the first performing group.  They were excellen.  Following them was the Lakeshore Middle School Chorus.

I have been amazed at the broad variety of talent.  I hope more folks will come out and enjoy over the next nine days.  Go to www.unitedwayofiredell.org to see who is playing when.  More later.  WBTV.com is providing a live streaming video throughout the 10-Day event at http://www.wbtv.com/global/story.asp?s=9997497